Month: September 2002

Poetry Slam: Ultraman is Airwolf

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

A story on MetaFilter turned me to the spoken-word recordings of Ernie Cline. They’re apparently of the poetry-slam genre, where participants are given 3 minutes to give a spoken performance, which is then judged by the audience.

At any rate, I quite enjoyed Ernie’s performances. If you’ve watched the show Airwolf, for instance, I’d quite recommend at least listening to that one.

In the MetaFilter comments, I asked whether this type of performance was representative of something that I’d find at a poetry slam (because, if that was the case, I’d certainly like to attend one). However, further comments haven’t definitively answered that one :-/.

Low-carb Beer

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

From a Slashdot article is mention of a new low-carb beer from Anheuser-Busch: Michelob Ultra:

Michelob Ultra is a smooth, refreshing lager with 96 calories, 4.1 percent alcohol by volume and 2.9 grams of carbohydrates per 12-oz. serving. The brand began test marketing in December in Denver, Colo., Tucson, Ariz., and Ft. Myers, Naples and Punta Gorda, Fla.

The press release goes on to say that “The brand will roll out nationally in September”. Being that Michelob Ultra is from Anheuser-Busch, I don’t have my hopes up ;). But, I’d be willing to try it once.

Super Breakfast

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A couple weeks ago, Julie and I came up with the idea of a “Super Breakfast“ — like a potluck dinner, but with breakfast instead. Someone would bring pancakes, someone would bring sausages, and so on.

Since Julie and Leia were having a slumber party Friday night, they figured that the following morning could be a good opportunity for a Super Breakfast. Though the slumber party was girls-only, the Super Breakfast would be co-ed. In her invitation for Saturday morning, Julie phrased it that the scummy-boys would be making breakfast for the girls — I realize that she only meant it in jest, but I thought that was a bit odd. I would have preferred if the plan was for everyone to help with breakfast (and in practice, it worked out that way anyhow).

Since he’s car-less, I gave Bryan a ride to the house. He brought along his waffle iron and I brought along pancake-mix and a ladle (so that we could make waffles and pancakes, respectively).

Once at the house, everyone began making the breakfast. I combined the ingredients for the pancake mix, and began preparing those. Meanwhile, croissants and biscuits (the “with gravy” kind) warmed in the oven, someone made scrambled eggs, and someone else made bacon and sausage links. It was a very busy kitchen ;).

It worked out to be a very thorough breakfast. I had a couple pancakes, a waffle, some sausage links, and a croissant. I enjoyed the pancakes and the croissant with some butter-spread and sugar free blackberry jam. I also tried some blackberry (?) sauce with the waffle. It was very convenient in sauce-form (as opposed to a jam) as it nicely filled the square crevices of the waffle.

After breakfast (brunch?), I discovered some double-chocolate bundt cake in the fridge, which I quickly put to use. The chocolate icing was thin in texture and melted easily, so it was full of flavor. And, the cake itself was moist and chocolately. It was very tasty, and I always enjoy a good chocolate cake.

Earlier in the morning, I had placed the package of Ding-Dongs in the freezer, as I had read somewhere that they become even more tasty once frozen. And, post-bundt, I was ready to try one. At that point, it had been several hours since I had put them in the freezer, so they were mostly chilled.

Sure enough, they were pretty good. The cake-portion of the Ding Dong changed little from the freezing process. However, the chocolate coating gathered a pleasantly crispy texture. Best of all, the creme center of the Ding Dong took on a semi-solid state such that it almost resembled a fluffy version of the ice cream found in an ice cream sandwich. Hopefully, someone will bring Twinkies to the next Super Breakfast, as I imagine that those too may improve with the freezing process.

In all, I had a great time, and I really look forward to the next one.

Cider Varieties

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

In my commentary on the DFWBlogs Cocktail Event for September, Josh Baugher asks about other cider varieties:

I like cider, but haven't tried that many varieties. I've had Hornsby's, Cider Jack, Strongbow, and all the Woodchucks.

What brand names should I be on the lookout for (Besides Kelly's and Savanna Dry?

Sadly, there just aren’t that many varieties of cider in this country. So, he may have already named about 90% of the cider varieties sold in this country.

One distinction is that there are “two” Horsby’s varieties. There’s the red-label and the yellow-label. I believe that the yellow-label Hornsby’s is their Draft Cider, while red label may be called their Dark & Dry variety.

At any rate, the difference is that the yellow-label (draft) has more added sugar. So, it’s sweeter. But, if you’re looking for the dryer, more flavorful of the two, go for the red-label Hornsby’s.

Another cider is K Cider, which I talk more about in that entry. The K Cider was definitely an above-average cider, though maybe not to the level of my aforementioned favorites.

I’ve seen Ace Cider in the beer stores around here, though I haven’t tried it yet (primarily because it tends to be priced at about $7.50 for a six-pack). Through a Google search, reviews were hard to find, though I did come across this article on Ace Cider:

Ace Honey, which has been available for only a few months, is the driest of the three, and appeals to more experienced palates, says House. It collected the gold medal for cider at last fall’s Sonoma County Harvest Fair. [&hellip]

When it comes to cider, I like mine the dryer the better :). So, I may just keep an eye out for their Ace Honey.

I tried Woodpecker Cider long ago, back when I lived in Alexandria, VA. Of all places, I actually first found it in a Safeway. However, it’s brewed in Britain (the homeplace of so many great ciders). It’s been too long since tasting it to give any meaninful commentary on Woodpecker. I do recall, though, that it wasn’t oversweetened as some American ciders can be.

In contrast to Ace Cider, I found quite a few reviews for Woodpecker Cider. This one in particular interested me, and now I’m wondering just what blackcurrant is ;).

One cider that Josh mentioned was Strongbow. However, I haven’t tried that one — how does it compare to some of the other ciders that you’ve tasted?

Lastly, does anyone know where I can buy beer and/or cider by the case (24 bottles) in Dallas? I generally drink a beer with dinner each night, for the health benefits (in addition to its general deliciousness). However, I don’t want to have to go to the store every week, so I prefer to buy by the case (at Sam’s Club, so far).

However, Sam’s Club, as with everything else that they sell, doesn’t have an extensive variety. I find that I’m lucky if I can find cider there at all (I bought K Cider there once, but I haven’t seen it there since then). So, I’m hoping that I can find some other vendors in the area that sell by the case.

“Year of the Digital SLR?”

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

Popular Photography has an article on the question “Have we entered the Year of the Digital SLR?”. There’re some interesting bits in there, including the apparent equivalency that a traditional analog SLR would be comparable to a 20 MP digicam.This was my favorite part, though:

And 2002 could turn out to be the year of the affordable digital SLR (or, as Japanese designers would say, “Kotoshi wa digital SLR yasuhunarimasu!”). […]

That quote just came out of nowhere, and I’m not even sure what it means. But, I like it ;).